Ask Me Again
by LilaMae1
Summary: How Wayne Rigsby came to ask Grace Van Pelt out.
1. Chapter 1

The Mentalist- Ask Me Again.

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My first Mentalist story, so be nice. I kind of have an idea where this could go, so please review if you want me to continue!

Disclaimer: Don't own them.

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In the aftermath of the last Red John case, there had been many changes in the Serious Crimes Unit of the California Bureau of Investigation. One of the changes had been that Sam Bosco was to take over the Red John case, which drew the furious attention of all the agents and one particular consultant to the extent that most of the team were left unaware of a change that had been instigated by the two remaining members of the team; namely, Wayne Rigsby and Grace Van Pelt.

It had been the night when Maya Plaskett was returned to her parents that it had happened. Jane and Lisbon had each gone to their respective homes at Minelli's insistence that they had been through too much in the last 24 hours, and they were indeed tired, since they made little protest. Cho had also looked tired, and so Rigsby and Van Pelt had insisted that he go home, telling him that they could easily do the necessary follow-up work. Twenty minutes after the others had left, they had found a quiet space and were both diligently doing their work. Grace's voice suddenly broke out into the dark bullpen.

"That poor girl," she lamented, shaking her head.

"Who?" asked Rigsby, surprised by the sound of Grace's voice. "Oh, you mean, Maya Plaskett?"

"Yeah, I mean, she has to go home, after all this has happened, and carry on living without her sister. She was her identical twin, every time she looks in the mirror, she's going to see her sister's face."

"I didn't think of it that way," said Wayne, staring into the distance. He quickly shook himself, and continued with his work. They kept working, with Wayne rustling his papers and Grace clicking on the computer keyboard, and every so often Grace would glance at Wayne across the table.

"Wayne?" she eventually said, in an inquisitive sort of voice.

Rigsby was alerted by the fact Van Pelt had used his first name to the importance of what she was going to say. He put down his pencil and put all his attention on her.

"Grace?" he said back, curiously, but with a slight teasing tone.

"Do you ever think that we're all just...wasting time?" she said, staring into space while she swung lightly side to side on her desk chair, fiddling with her biro.

"How d'you mean?" Wayne asked her, worried. Grace's question had sounded an awful lot like philosophy. Wayne Rigsby was not a stupid man, but his world was a concrete one, full of facts and absolutes, and the world of philosophy was an enigma that seemed pointless to him.

"Like we all spend so much time procrastinating and worrying about things that we don't just" she let out a frustrated sigh, "_stop being afraid _and do what makes us happy in that moment, even though it could cause us pain later? That we've all just stopped taking chances?" As she came to the end of this speech she moved her chair close to his desk, sitting on it backwards to face him.

"I guess so," said Rigsby, slightly uncertainly, though glad she had not started spouting Plato.

"Rigsby?" she asked him suddenly. "That time when we were in the car and you wanted to ask me something, but the suspect arrived before you could? What did you want to say to me?"

Rigsby's mouth opened slightly, and then he shut it again. His face reddened as he realised what Grace was referring to. He had been wanting to ask her if they could go out sometime, something he had insinuated on many occasions, and that time he had decided to bite the bullet and just ask her. He knew Grace knew about his feelings for her; hell, the whole Bureau knew. He was certain that Grace had known what he was going to ask that day, which was why she had never asked him what he was going to say before. Afraid of rejection, Wayne had simply let it go. So why was she talking about it now?

"Umm..." Rigsby replied, looking down at his desk, returning to shuffling his papers. Grace put her hand on his wrist, stopping him from his fidgeting, which caused him to look into her eyes. She looked nervous, and looked like she was trying to find the words to say before she continued speaking.

"I think I know what you wanted to say to me, to ask me," she said, letting go of his wrist and twisting her hands together in her lap. "It's just...if you decided that you wanted to ask me what you wanted to ask me before, then...you could." Her part done, she let out a relieved sigh, and leaned forwards into her chair, with her face slightly hidden by the chair back and her hair.

Rigsby stared at her as she sat before him, the colour of her cheeks starting to match the red of her hair. No way could this gorgeous girl be asking him to ask her to go out sometime. Remembering what Grace had said about taking chances (she couldn't have said it for nothing, right?), he let out a deep, slow breath, and decided to ask her.

"Grace? Do you want to, maybe, go out with me sometime? I mean, for a date. Not if you don't want to, though, don't feel that you..." he said, starting to ramble. She cut him off with one of those pretty smiles that always stopped him dead.

"I'd like that, Wayne."


	2. Chapter 2

OK, second chapter. This may or may not be the last. If you like, review and tell me what you would want to see the story go.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Grace Van Pelt stood in line at the security checkpoint at the CBI building. As she waited for the guard to finish checking the bag of the person before her, her mind flit back to last night. She had had a lovely evening with Rigsby. In true Rigsby style, they had gone to a football game, but Grace had never been one for fancy restaurants; a small-town girl herself, these expensive city restaurants intimidated her. In any case, it gave her joy to be with someone who was so obviously thrilled to be spending time with her. She loved the fact that the very masculine Rigsby put away his manly game-playing when it came to their relationship: she had come home from their date to a rather shy answering machine message from Rigsby, saying what a good time he'd had and that he hoped they could do it again sometime. A nice change from the boys she had been out with before, who would call three days later on the dot, so as not to seem too eager.

After she made it through the check-point, Grace went up the lift and proceeded to make her way to the bull-pen. She smiled slightly when she saw Rigsby behind a stack of paperwork, staring absently into space. He suddenly jolted, and caught her staring at him. He directed a beatific grin towards her and then quickly looked away towards the couch and blushed. Grace rolled her eyes slightly when she saw Jane looking between the two of them with a Patrick Jane smile on his face and give Wayne a thumbs-up before laughing and reclining back on his couch.

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It was five weeks later, and Wayne Rigsby and Grace Van Pelt had been on dates about three times a week for all of them. What had begun as meeting at ballgames or for a casual lunch had quickly changed into romantic strolls down the beach and evenings in to watch movies (rom-coms when Grace chose, action-packed thrillers when Rigsby chose). They had shared their first kiss about one week in, and shared numerous more in the following weeks. It had occurred to Wayne that they were being less cautious than they should be; they had begun kissing in public, and some of their date locations could not easily be passed off as "just a friend thing" if anyone from the CBI were to see them. What were the chances, though? Out of all of Sacramento, the number of people who worked at CBI was small, and the people who would actually recognise Grace and Rigsby were even fewer. Thinking about Van Pelt, Rigsby decided to put his fear out of his mind, to be dealt with another time, as he grinned to himself in anticipation of meeting Grace to see a new movie.

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Virgil Minelli's face was blanked when a confused Teresa Lisbon and a nervous Rigsby and Van Pelt entered the room. He motioned for them to sit down while he shuffled some papers on his desk. The three visitors sat in silence until Lisbon decided to comment.

"Sir? May I ask what this is about? Only we think we might have a new lead on Menezes case, so..."

"Agent Lisbon, did you know that these two were in a relationship?" said Minelli.

"Wha..? Rigsby and Van Pelt?" Teresa's voice kept a steady sound of surprise, but she shot the mortified pair a suspicious glare as Minelli's back was turned.

"Sir, I don't know who told you, but..." Rigsby began to nervously say, but Lisbon cut him off with a professional tone.

"What Rigsby means to say is, how did this rumor come about?"

"It's not a rumor, Agent Lisbon. One of the guys who cleans for the building reported that he saw these two," Minelli waved his hand between Van Pelt and Rigsby, "were kissing in the lobby of the movie theater downtown on Tuesday night at about 9pm. What I want to know is what do you think I should do about this?" He directed his last question to Rigsby and Van Pelt, who were sitting stick-straight on the couch. Grace opened her mouth to say something when Lisbon suddenly interjected.

" That's impossible, Sir. This cleaner couldn't have seen them Tuesday night."

Minelli stared at Lisbon, who looked into his eyes unflinchingly. "Want to explain why that is, Agent Lisbon?"

"I put them on stakeout all Tuesday night. I was in contact with them throughout. They were working from 7 until 10pm. They couldn't possibly have been at this movie theatre."

"Is that so?" Minelli asked, scratching his head slightly. He looked disconcerted for a moment, then crossed the room to the door as if to open it, but stopped his hand on the door handle."

"Agent Lisbon, I don't know what's going on here, but I'm going to trust you to do what's necessary for the good of this team. Is that clear?"

"Sir, like I said, I have no reason to believe that there is anything untoward going on between any of my agents. If I were to see Agent Rigsby or Agent Van Pelt in any behaviour which makes me believe otherwise, I will deal with it," she said self-assuredly.

"Very well," said Minelli, yanking the door open abruptly. "You have work to do. Go do it."

The three mutely went down the corridor towards the bullpen, and Lisbon motioned the other two to follow her to her office. Once she closed the door, both Rigsby and Van Pelt started gushing gratefully until she raised her hand to stop them.

"Look," she said sternly. "We all know that something is going on between you two. But you have *got* to be careful. I won't lie for you again. You hear me?" Grace and Wayne looked at each other and nodded. Lisbon got some paperwork out and started writing rather viciously, which they both took as their cue to leave.


End file.
